John Evely

Ten-man Oakham United continued their winning run in the UCL Division One on Saturday with a 3-1 victory against Long Buckby.

The important three points on the road sees the Tractor Boys move up to sixth in the division with Raunds Town, who were previously above them, only drawing at the weekend.

Oakham’s badly injury-depleted squad were dealt a serious blow before the match even started as Ben Easson limped out of the warm up injured.

However the Tractor Boys scored twice before the interval, first through a Gav Cooke penalty into the top corner, and then from a looping header by Michael Nelson.

New signing Bobby Bick made his first start for the club and former Ketton stopper Dan Swan kept the net and both played well for the Rutland club.

On the hour mark Kieron Burrell pulled a goal back for the hosts but any thought of a revival was put to bed when Cooke struck again from the penalty spot just five minutes later. Again dispatching from 12 yards into the top corner.

Substitute Cameron Sharp had an afternoon to forget when he was shown two yellows in quick succession, the second particularly a soft decision, to leave his side a man down for the last 15 minutes but they held out for the victory, even with assistant manager Darren Edey making up the numbers late on.